Justice News

Crownpoint Man Sentenced to Prison for Federal Assault Conviction

Defendant Prosecuted as Part of Federal Initiative to Address the Epidemic Incidence of Violence Against Native Women

ALBUQUERQUE – Shiloh Y. McLemore, 36, an enrolled member of the Navajo Nation who resides in Crownpoint, N.M., was sentenced this morning in federal court in Albuquerque, N.M., to 63 months in prison followed by three years of supervised release for his assault conviction.

McLemore was arrested on April 15, 2015, on a criminal complaint charging him with assault with a dangerous weapon. The complaint alleged that on April 8, 2015, law enforcement officers responded to the campus of the Navajo Technical University (NTU), where McLemore had assaulted and battered a woman and had then barricaded himself inside an apartment on the NTU campus. When approached by a Navajo man, McLemore took out a handgun, loaded the handgun with a full magazine of bullets, chambered a bullet, and threatened the man.

McLemore was subsequently indicted on May 12, 2015, and charged with assault of a male victim with a dangerous weapon, assault of a female victim with a dangerous weapon, and using and brandishing a firearm during a crime of violence. The indictment alleged that McLemore committed the three crimes on April 8, 2015, on the Navajo Indian Reservation in McKinley County, N.M. On Sept. 17, 2015, McLemore pled guilty to the two assault charges.

The Gallup office of the FBI and the Crownpoint office of the Navajo Nation Department of Public Safety investigated this case, which was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Novaline D. Wilson.

The case was brought pursuant to the Tribal Special Assistant U.S. Attorney (Tribal SAUSA) Pilot Project in the District of New Mexico, which is sponsored by the Justice Department’s Office on Violence Against Women under a grant administered by the Pueblo of Laguna. The Tribal SAUSA Pilot Project seeks to train tribal prosecutors in federal law, procedure and investigative techniques to increase the likelihood that every viable violent offense against Native women is prosecuted in either federal court or tribal court, or both. The Tribal SAUSA Pilot Project was largely driven by input gathered from annual tribal consultations on violence against women, and is another step in the Justice Department's on-going efforts to increase engagement, coordination and action on public safety in tribal communities.